Showing papers in "International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis in 1994"

The Possible Role of Source Misattributions in the Creation of False Beliefs Among Preschoolers

Abstract: In this article the authors examine one possible factor in the creation of false beliefs among preschool-aged children, namely, source misattributions. The authors present the results from an ongoing program of research which suggest that source misattributions could be a mechanism underlying children's false beliefs about having experienced fictitious events. Findings from this program of research indicate that, although all children are susceptible to making source misattributions, very young children may be disproportionately vulnerable to these kinds of errors. This vulnerability leads younger preschoolers, on occasion, to claim that they remember actually experiencing events that they only thought about or were suggested by others. These results are discussed in the context of the ongoing debate over the veracity and durability of delayed reports of early memories, repressed memories, dissociative states, and the validity risks posed by therapeutic techniques that entail repeated visually guided imagery inductions.

Brain Dynamics and Hypnosis: Attentional and Disattentional Processes

Abstract: This article reviews recent research findings, expanding an evolving neuropsychophysiological model of hypnosis (Crawford, 1989; Crawford & Gruzelier, 1992), that support the view that highly hypnotizable persons (highs) possess stronger attentional filtering abilities than do low hypnotizable persons, and that these differences are reflected in underlying brain dynamics. Behavioral, cognitive, and neurophysiological evidence is reviewed that suggests that highs can both better focus and sustain their attention as well as better ignore irrelevant stimuli in the environment. It is proposed that hypnosis is a state of enhanced attention that activates an interplay between cortical and subcortical brain dynamics during hypnotic phenomena, such as both attentional and disattentional processes, among others, are important in the experiencing of hypnosis and hypnotic phenomena. Findings from studies of electrocortical activity, event-related potentials, and regional cerebral blood flow during waking and hypnosis are presented to suggest that these attentional differences are reflected in underlying neurophysiological differences in the far fronto-limbic attentional system.

Autonomic Changes During Hypnosis: A Heart Rate Variability Power Spectrum Analysis as a Marker of Sympatho-Vagal Balance

Abstract: Spectral analysis of beat-to-beat variability in electrocardiography is a simple, noninvasive method to analyze sympatho-vagal interaction. The electrocardiogram is analyzed by means of an automatic, autoregressive modeling algorithm that provides a quantitative estimate of R-R interval variability by the computation of power spectral density. Two major peaks are recognizable in this specter: a low-frequency peak (LF, -0.1 Hz), related to the overall autonomic activity (ortho + parasympathetic) and a high-frequency peak (HF, -0.25 Hz), representative of the vagal activity. The LF/HF ratio is an index of the sympatho-vagal interaction. This technique was applied, using a computer-assisted electrocardiograph, to 10 healthy volunteers (6 high and 4 low hypnotizable subjects as determined by the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C) in randomized awake and neutral hypnosis conditions. Preliminary results indicated thathypnosis affects heart rate variability, shifting the balance of the symp...

Hypnotic Hypermnesia: The Empty Set of Hypermnesia

Abstract: Although a long tradition exists suggesting that hypnosis can enhance memory (hypnotic hypermnesia), the experimental literature is quite mixed. When, however, laboratory studies are classified according to the type of stimulus and memory tests employed, a remarkable orderliness of outcomes emerges: Recall tests for high-sense stimuli (e.g., poetry, meaningful pictures) almost always produce hypermnesia, but not recognition tests for low-sense stimuli (e.g., nonsense syllables, word lists). An important methodological issue is whether the recall increments for high-sense stimuli constitute enhanced memory or enhanced reporting (laxer response criteria). Recent laboratory literatures show that, beyond response criterion effects, true memory enhancement (hypermnesia) exists. Experiments conducted over the past decade, however, demonstrate that it is repeated retrieval effort and not hypnosis that is responsible for hypermnesia: Repeated testing without hypnosis yields as much hypermnesia as with hypnosis.

Past-Life Identities, Ufo Abductions, and Satanic Ritual Abuse: The Social Construction of Memories

Abstract: People sometimes fantasize entire complex scenarios and later define these experiences as memories of actual events rather than as imaginings. This article examines research associated with three such phenomena: past-life experiences, UFO alien contact and abduction, and memory reports of childhood ritual satanic abuse. In each case, elicitation of the fantasy events is frequently associated with hypnotic procedures and structured interviews which provide strong and repeated demands for the requisite experiences, and which then legitimate the experiences as "real memories." Research associated with these phenomena supports the hypothesis that recall is reconstructive and organized in terms of current expectations and beliefs.

The concept of flashbacks in historical perspective.

Abstract: A computer search of the literature for papers indexed under "flashbacks" produced a list of 70 references, many found in publications on the topics of substance abuse and trauma. Several of these were letters or papers written in languages other than English. In all, the author reviewed 55 papers. Although most of these papers contained comments that addressed the subject matter to some extent as recurrences or reminiscences of past happenings, the variability in the use of the term leaves many unresolved questions regarding the veridicality of the imagery. Nothing in the presentations reviewed by the author clearly demonstrates the unidimensional nature of flashbacks nor any recognizable neurophysiological correlate. The content of a flashback appears to be at least as likely to be the product of imagination as it is of memory.

Laser-induced pain-related brain potentials and sensory pain ratings in high and low hypnotizable subjects during hypnotic suggestions of relaxation, dissociated imagery, focused analgesia, and placebo.

Abstract: Pain reports and amplitudes of painful argon laser-induced brain potentials were obtained for 10 high and 10 low hypnotizable volunteers following placebo and a randomized sequence of four hypnotically induced conditions of (a) neutral hypnosis, (b) deep relaxation, (c) pleasant dissociated “out of body” imagery, and (d) focused analgesia of the hand. Both high and low hypnotizable subjects exhibited significant reductions of reported pain during conditions of neutral hypnosis, relaxation, dissociated imagery, and focused analgesia. High hypnotizable subjects displayed significantly greater reductions than low hypnotizables in all conditions except placebo. Both high and low hypnotizables exhibited significant reductions of reported pain in all five conditions as well as in the posthypnotic condition, when amplitudes of evoked potentials were compared to the prehypnotic baseline. Only the high hypnotizable group showed significant reductions in amplitudes when the data were recalculated to reflec...

Hypnosis, delayed recall, and the principles of memory.

Abstract: This article reviews the seven principles of memory function that set limits on the degree to which any attempt to recover a long-forgotten memory can succeed: encoding, organization, time dependency, cue dependency, encoding specificity, schematic processing, and reconstruction. In the absence of independent corroboration, there is no "litmus test" that can reliably distinguish true from false memories, or memories that are based on perception from those that are based on imagination. Practicing clinicians should exercise great caution when using hypnosis or any other technique to facilitate delayed recall.

Pseudomemories Without Hypnosis

Abstract: Hypnosis is often colloquially associated with "the power of suggestion"; however, some cognitive memory researchers believe that suggestions have power even without hypnosis. A well-known phenomenon in cognitive psychology is the "misinformation effect," in which subjects who are misled about previously witnessed events often integrate that inaccurate postevent information into their accounts of the event. In the present article, we review the misinformation literature in four major rounds according to the nature of the memory distortion. The first three rounds are studies of memory suggestibility for observed events; by contrast, the fourth (and newest) one deals with personal or autobiographical memory. Considered collectively, these four rounds of research provide compelling evidence that it is not hard at all to make people truly believe they have seen or experienced something they have not-without any hypnosis at all. Finally, we discuss the tragic implications for the unquestioned acceptance of all recovered memories.

Recovered-memory therapy and robust repression: influence and pseudomemories.

Abstract: A subset of the psychotherapists practicing trauma-focused therapy predicate their treatment on the existence of a newly claimed, powerful form of repression that differs from repression as used in the psychoanalytic tradition and from amnesia in any of its recognized forms. Recovered-memory specialists assist patients to supposedly retrieve vast quantities of information (e.g., utterly new dramatic life histories) that were allegedly unavailable to consciousness for years or decades. We refer to the hypothesized mental mechanism as "robust repression" and call attention to the absence of evidence documenting its validity and to the differences between it and other mental mechanisms and memory features. No recovered-memory practitioner has ever published a full specification of the attributes of this mechanism. That is, the properties it would have to have for the narratives developed during therapy to be historically accurate to any significant degree. This article reports a specification of the properties of the robust repression mechanism based on interviews with current and former patients, practitioners' writings, and reports to researchers and clinicians. The spread of reliance on the robust repression mechanism over the past 20 years through portions of the clinical community is traced. While involved in therapy, patients of recovered-memory practitioners come to believe that they have either instantly repressed large numbers of discrete events or simultaneously repressed all information about abuse they may have endured for as long as a decade.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Satanism, Ritual Abuse, and Multiple Personality Disorder: A Sociohistorical Perspective

Abstract: During the past decade in North America, a growing number of mental health professionals have reported that between 25% and 50% of their patients in treatment for multiple personality disorder (MPD) have recovered early childhood traumatic memories of ritual torture, incestuous rape, sexual debauchery, sacrificial murder, infanticide, and cannibalism perpetrated by members of clandestine satanic cults. Although hundreds of local and federal police investigations have failed to corroborate patients' therapeutically constructed accounts, because the satanic etiology of MPD is logically coherent with the neodissociative, traumatic theory of psychopathology, conspiracy theory has emerged as the nucleus of a consistent pattern of contemporary clinical interpretation. Resolutely logical and thoroughly operational, ultrascientific psychodemonology remains paradoxically oblivious to its own irrational premises. When the hermetic logic of conspiracy theory is stripped away by historical and socio/psychological analysis, however, the hypothetical perpetrators of satanic ritual abuse simply disappear, leaving in their wake the very real human suffering of all those who have been caught up in the social delusion.

Memory distortion and sexual trauma: the problem of false negatives and false positives

Abstract: Logically, two broad types of mnemonic errors are possible when adult psychotherapy or hypnosis patients reflect on whether they were sexually abused or not as a child. They may believe that they were not abused when in fact they were (false negative error), or they may believe they were abused when in fact they were not (false positive error). The author briefly reviews the empirical evidence for the occurrence of each of these types of errors, and illustrates each with a clinical case. Further, in considering the incidence, importance, and clinical implications of these errors, the author contends that clinical efficacy in no way assures that a false negative or a false positive has been avoided. A plea is made for theorists and researchers to acknowledge that both categories of errors can occur and to conduct future clinical and laboratory research accordingly.

Event-related potentials during hypnotic hallucination.

Abstract: Event-related potentials were elicited by visual stimulation and recorded at frontal, central, and posterior scalp sites so as to study the psychophysiological process associated with hypnotic hallucination. Subjects were screened using two measures of hypnotic susceptibility (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C). Seven high and 9 low hypnotizable right-handed females participated in the experiment. Eight intermediate hypnotizable right-handed females served as controls. Peak amplitudes and latencies of PI, Nl, P2, N2, and P3 components were compared in two hypnotic conditions (obtained by means of hypnotic suggestions): stimulus enhancement and stimulus elimination. High hypnotizable subjects displayed a significant attenuation of the PI and Nl amplitudes of the evoked response while experiencing stimulus elimination. The effect for the PI component was greatest at the posterior sites compared to that found at the anterior...

Dissociated or fabricated? Psychiatric aspects of repressed memory in criminal and civil cases

Abstract: During the last decade, clinicians, courts, and researchers have been faced with exceedingly difficult questions involving the crossroads where memory, traumatic memory, dissociation, repression, childhood sexual abuse, and suggestion all meet. In one criminal case, repressed memories served as the basis for a conviction of murder. In approximately 50 civil cases, courts have ruled on the issue of whether repressed memory for childhood sexual abuse may form the basis of a suit against the alleged perpetrators. Rulings that have upheld such use underscore the importance of the reliability of memory retrieval techniques. Hypnosis and other methodologies employed in psychotherapy may be beneficial in working through memories of trauma, but they may also distort memories or alter a subject's evaluation of their veracity. Because of the reconstructive nature of memory, caution must be taken to treat each case on its own merits and avoid global statements essentially proclaiming either that repressed memory is always right or that it is always wrong.

Parallel application of the experiential analysis technique with subject and hypnotist: a new possibility for measuring interactional synchrony.

Abstract: The Parallel Experiential Analysis Technique (PEAT), a new-method for gathering data on the subjective experiences of both the hypnotist and the subject, is described. The PEAT is an interactional modification of the Experiential Analysis Technique (EAT). Procedural details and methodological observations resulting from the modification of the EAT are discussed. Suggestions on how to characterize the phenomenology of the hypnotic interaction and to determine the degree of interactional synchrony on the subjective level between the hypnotist and subject are made.

Narrative Truth and Putative Child Abuse

Abstract: Memories of early child abuse can be read in at least two distinct ways--as true accounts of an unspeakable event or as metaphors for a wide range of boundary violations which belong to both past and present. An actual memory of an early experience tends to fade unless repeatedly rehearsed; because abuse memories are inherently shameful, it seems reasonable to be skeptical of this kind of repetition and to be suspicious of their sudden emergence. An actual memory of an early experience would be told from the child's point of view and would probably contain many false starts, internal contradictions, and all the other earmarks of a confused memory that refer to an early happening; by contrast, a seamless account with a tight narrative structure and an almost total absence of doubt or irrelevant detail is almost certainly false. An actual memory would tend to have its own flavor and style; by contrast, a memory of child abuse that sounds too much like other memories is more likely a metaphor for something else. Therapists, lawyers, and other professionals need to be trained to listen metaphorically to these accounts, to be on guard against hearing them as concrete references to a particular time and place, and to beware of reinforcing them prematurely.

The use of hypnosis in anesthesia: a master class commentary.

Abstract: There are unequivocal benefits derived from the use of positive suggestion and hypnotic techniques in all patients who must submit to surgical and obstetrical procedures with modern general or regional anesthesia. We must learn, and we must teach our colleagues, the advantages of consistent use of the semantics of positive suggestion. When we help patients focus on the desired comfort, safety, and satisfaction obtained with well-managed modern anesthesia and surgery, they will enjoy great benefit, especially when we use the auditory perception that often exists during general anesthesia. Rather than regarding hypnotic suggestion as a mere adjunct to anesthesia, it should be regarded as an integral part of surgical and obstetrical care.

Retrieval Inhibition in Directed Forgetting and Posthypnotic Amnesia

Abstract: In Experiment 1, subjects received either by word or by list directed forgetting or posthypnotic amnesia instructions. Recall and recognition performance of subjects who received directed forgetting instructions was consistent with previous findings reported by Basden, Basden, and Gargano (1993), with subjects who received by word instructions showing both recall and recognition deficits for to-be-forgotten items. By contrast, subjects who were given by list instructions showed recall but no recognition deficits, which suggests that although differential encoding underlies word method directed forgetting, retrieval inhibition underlies list method directed forgetting. Subjects who received posthypnotic amnesia instructions (irrespective of method of delivery used) showed recall deficits but no recognition deficits, which suggests that retrieval inhibition underlies posthypnotic amnesia. In Experiment 2, recognition scores were lower with public (oral) tests than with private (written) tests, and recovery was equivalent for to-be-forgotten and to-be-remembered items. The results are interpreted as inconsistent with the differential tagging mechanisms proposed by Huesmann, Gruder, and Dorst (1987).

Hypnotic susceptibility, imaging ability, and the detection of embedded words within letters

Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to determine the role of hypnotic susceptibility level (high or low) and imaging ability (vivid or poor) in the performance of a visual search for words embedded within matrices of letters. In Experiment 1, subjects searched for target words from a list; however, distractor words were also embedded in the matrices. Results indicated that subjects judged both high in hypnotic susceptibility and vivid in imaging ability demonstrated the fastest search speed with a greater percentage of target words found. These subjects also made fewer false alarm errors (locating distractor words not on the target list). The poorest performance was exhibited by subjects judged both low in hypnotic susceptibility and poor in imaging ability. The amount of variance accounted for by hypnotic susceptibility and imaging ability was approximately equal for each dependent measure. In Experiment 2, when subjects searched for target words from a list without distractor words embedded in matrices, similar results to those reported for Experiment 1 were produced, except that the percentage of words found was equivalent across groups. This was attributed to the elimination of potential false alarm errors. The results are explained in terms of the use of either a holistic or a detail strategy in the performance of a visual search.

Clinical guidelines in using hypnosis in uncovering memories of sexual abuse: a master class commentary

Abstract: “Joan” wanted to recover these apparently forgotten memories in the belief she could better control brief dissociative episodes occurring during her normal and loving sexual relations with her husband. She had previously spent years in intense psychoanalytic psychotherapy and yet had a persistent frightening sense of an inner emptiness that was interfering with her life. She felt such uncovering of past memories might free her to express appropriate anger and assertiveness in her professional work. She initially stated that she wanted to keep whatever was uncovered in the ofice as part of her therapy, unless she became convinced that true abuse had occurred. If so, she wanted him to pay and stated she would never talk to him again.

“Cyberphysiologic” Strategies for Children: The Clinical Hypnosis/Biofeedback Interface

Abstract: This article presents an in-depth discussion of the integrated use of self-hypnosis and biofeedback in the treatment of pediatric biobehavioral disorders. The rationale for integrating these techniques and their similarities and differences are discussed. The concepts of children's imaginative abilities, mastery, and self-regulation are examined as they pertain to these therapeutic strategies. Three case studies are presented that illustrate the integrated use of self-hypnosis and biofeedback in the treatment of children with psychophysiologic disorders. The authors speculate on the specific aspects of these self-regulation or “cyberphysiologic” techniques that appear particularly relevant to positive therapeutic outcomes.

Pseudomemory in Hypnotized and Simulating Subjects

Abstract: High hypnotizable (n - 23) and low hypnotizable simulating (n = 13) subjects received pseudomemory suggestions. High hypnotizable and low hypnotizable simulating subjects were equally likely to pass the target noise suggestion during hypnosis and were also equally likely (high hypnotizables, 47.83%; low hypnotizable simulators, 64.29%) to report pseudomemories when tested for pseudomemory after instructions to awaken. As in previous research with task-motivated subjects, pseudomemory rate (high hypnotizables, 47.48%; low hypnotizable simulators, 46.15%) was not reduced by informing subjects that they could distinguish fantasy and reality in a nonhypnotic state of deep concentration. At final inquiry, after deep concentration, high hypnotizable and low hypnotizable simulating subjects' pseudomemories remained comparable (43.48% and 38.46%, respectively). Unlike previous research, high hypnotizable subjects did not report more unsuggested noises and more pseudomemories of novel sounds than did awak...

Nonverbal signs of deception during posthypnotic amnesia: a brief communication.

Abstract: The question of hypnotic subjects complying with instructions, perhaps even purposely deceiving the hypnotist or deceiving themselves, has arisen from the state-nonstate (skeptical-credulous) theoretical controversy. However, experimental testing of competing hypotheses has been difficult. The current report offers methodological procedures that may prove useful. Subjects who were given posthypnotic amnesia instructions were tested on free recall and implicit recall of a 20-word list. To detect the possibility of deception, videotapes of real subjects and simulating subjects during and after posthypnotic amnesia were rated for nonverbal signs of deception, signs taken from the works of Ekman, Ekman and Friesen, and Zuckerman et al. Preliminary results were gathered on a small pilot sample, and recommendations for procedural improvements are proposed.

Apnea in postsurgical hypnotherapy of an esophageal cancer patient: a brief communication.

Abstract: Use of clinical hypnosis in the postsurgical psychotherapy of an esophageal cancer patient who could not swallow involved reenactment of the successful surgery and producing hallucinations of taste and smell, as well as working through emotions relations to the surgery and her disease. An apnea that occurred in a late phase of the treatment was addressed with the familiar arm pumping technique that had been used as a deepening technique, resulting in the patient's resuming normal breathing. The experience reminds the practitioner of the possible unexpected professional demands when working in a medical environment. It also provides clues as to the underlying psychological mechanisms and their role in successful symptom removal. A 6-year follow-up confirmed the lasting effect of this brief psychotherapy.